Tumblr Backpedals on Porn Restrictions After Backlash

by Christopher Freeburn | July 22, 2013 10:32 am

[1]Yahoo‘s (YHOO[2]) Tumblr is backing away from a recent policy shift that blacklisted blogs with adult content from search services[3].

Users of the popular blog hosting platform reacted negatively when it emerged last week that 12.5 million blogs containing sexually explicit content had been booted from its index of Not Safe For Work (NSFW) blogs into a non-searchable Adult category, effectively rendering them invisible to search engines. Tag searches for certain terms were also restricted, ZDNet notes.

Faced with a firestorm of user criticism, the change last only about 24 hours. The blogging site has now put the Adult blogs back into its NSFW category and restored their listing on both internal and external search engines. However, some search terms, including those linked to gay and lesbian content, remain banned.

Earlier this year, Yahoo acquired Tumblr[4], promising not to change the website’s free-wheeling ways. Some critics suggest that the attempt to suppress adult content blogs likely originated from the new owners.